Jon Lester gets Game 1 nod for Red Sox

BOSTON — Jon Lester's postseason career has a New Testament feel to it. The last shall be first, and vice versa, which is a little different than the original version of the venerable best-seller.

Lester will start Game 1 of the Division Series, facing Tampa Bay here on Friday. It will be his seventh playoff start for Boston and the fifth that is either the first or last game of a series.

He started Game 4 of the 2007 World Series sweep over the Rockies, Game 3 of the 2008 Division Series sweep of the Angels, Game 7 of the 2008 ALCS loss to the Rays and Game 1 of Boston's most recent playoff experience, the 2009 Division Series with the Angels.

Lester is 2-3 with a 2.35 ERA in six playoff starts but will be looking for a little redemption with this one. His most recent three post-season starts have all been losses and in them, Lester has given up 10 earned runs in 18? innings, which figures out to a 4.82 earned run average.

John Lackey will start Saturday, then Clay Buchholz and Jake Peavy are set to go when Boston hits the road for the third and fourth games — if necessary for the fourth — on Monday and Tuesday.

Lester could start Game 5, if necessary, at Fenway Park next Thursday.

The southpaw's track record of pitching in crucial playoff games was not the only reason Lester got the call.

"Experience was not the deciding factor," John Farrell said. "All four guys have pitched in the postseason."

Lackey's success at Fenway Park this season was one reason he gets the ball in the second game as opposed to Buchholz. Lackey was 6-3, 2.47 at home during the regular season, and the Red Sox were 9-4 in his 13 starts at Fenway.

Buchholz will go into Game 3 with no restrictions on how long he can stay in the game, Farrell said.

He'll be handled as he would any other healthy Sox starting pitcher.

Lester was the only one of Boston's starting foursome who did not pitch in Wednesday's intrasquad game at Fenway Park.

The Blue team won it, 1-0, on an RBI hit by Jarrod Saltalamacchia. A crowd of about 3,500 accepted the Sox' invitation to watch for free and saw a relaxed afternoon of baseball — it may have been the first game at Fenway in decades where players risked being fined for running out ground balls, instead of the opposite.

While Farrell named his postseason rotation, he did not announce the composition of Boston's roster for the Division Series.

One thing is certain — the Red Sox will have 11 pitchers on the roster, not 10, and go with 14 position players.

"It is staying with what our strengths have been," Farrell said, adding, "You start to get multiple moves down the line, and you begin to weigh what's more important. To me, protecting the downside of something unforeseen happening on the mound — pitching-wise, I don't want to disrupt that."

Assuming the core nine position players are the Sox standard starting lineup, that means David Ross, Mike Carp and Jonny Gomes are sure things off the bench.

Quintin Berry will make it as a pinch runner, and either Xander Bogaerts or John McDonald will be an extra infielder.